FoodSquire looks to deliver on the South Shore

Tuesday

Oct 24, 2017 at 12:01 AMOct 25, 2017 at 3:34 PM

FoodSquire, which was in development for two years and had a soft launch six weeks ago, is a service that allows people to order food from a growing number of local establishments through an app or a web-based platform.

James Kukstis jkukstis@wickedlocal.com @MarinerJamesK

A Marshfield-based startup is looking to make it faster and easier for residents throughout area to access food from their favorite restaurants.

FoodSquire, which was in development for two years and had a soft launch six weeks ago, is a service that allows people to order food from a growing number of local establishments through an app or a web-based platform.

“The idea is to bring local restaurants from the South Shore to the Cape and Metro West in line with what customers now expect, which is instantaneous ordering,” said founder Joe Capone, of Marshfield.

So far, the company has 34 area restaurants signed up through their platform, which transmits the order from the customer to the restaurant through email, their point of sale system or fax, notifies the restaurant via phone that a new order has been placed and keeps the customer updated on the status of their food.

“The technology is infinitely scalable,” said Capone. “It’s really good in terms of functionality. People have been really happy to hear about it. It’s about notifications, trying to lower the blood pressure when you’re waiting for food, making it easy to order.”

Customers have the option of ordering food for pickup or delivery, which is performed either by a restaurant’s own delivery staff, or by a network of proprietary drivers being built by FoodSquire.

Capone’s other company, Webier Consulting, works with companies to develop their websites, a functionality that allows FoodSquire to adapt and cater to individual restaurants’ needs and adjust their connection to the FoodSquire platform, which currently offers 150 different features.

“A lot of restaurants have website ordering, but it tends to be clunky,” Capone said. “It’s not mobile-friendly and it’s different every time you see it.”

By centralizing the ordering process through FoodSquire, customers are provided a more standard and accessible ordering experience. While there is competition in the space from larger players like Seamless and GrubHub, Capone said those companies have little interest in growing aggressively in this geographical area.

Additionally, Capone said FoodSquire charges restaurants a smaller percentage per order than the larger competitors: 4.9 percent instead of 8 to 10 percent. If FoodSquire is also performing delivery for a restaurant, the fee is 30 percent per order, where competitors are charging 35 percent or more, Capone said.

More than 70 individuals signed up to build a network of local drivers for delivery who will go through a screening and background check process before being onboarded. Capone said they hope to have their proprietary delivery service launched as an option for restaurants within the next few weeks.

Drivers start at a base rate of $8 per delivery, which can be bumped up to $12 per delivery depending on the time of day, the number of deliveries they’ve made and their delivery rating, which customers submit through the app on their judgment of the delivery experience, not the food itself.

In addition to Webier Consulting, Capone also has an insurance company, and he said he said he was excited to be moving into the food delivery space.

“I wanted to have something that everybody loves,” Capone said. “Everybody loves food; everybody loves good food. Everybody knows someone who owns a restaurant, or knows someone who works or worked at a restaurant. Food is everything. I wanted to have something that was capable of being more viral.”

Capone said their focus now is on signing up more restaurants and spreading the word to customers that they are an option for food delivery. Then, Capone said the goal is to market the service to hospitals, hotels and corporate buildings: places where people will be ordering food and might not know the area very well.

Capone is from Hull and his wife is from Marshfield, where they’ve made their home. The choice to start the company in Marshfield, then, was an easy one.